Last but not Least: Lucifer!

“If he was truly once beautiful/As he is now ugly, and raised his brows/Against his maker-then all sorrow may well (367)”

It is neat to see the difference between the devil that we grow up with and the thirteenth century one. In American literature and other literature classes Satan appears as a trickster. He is in charge of the under world and tries to draw tempted people to hell. Dante’s devil is very different. He has no power what so ever but tries in vain to escape. He is not the creature damning people or ordering people about. Lucifer is not punishing those that deserve to be punished but is being punished himself. That is different than the later devil that runs around the living. In medieval times god was the wrathful. Now we think of god as being forgiving and loving and blame the evil on the Devil. In Dante’s time, punishing was God’s job, not Satan’s.

“Some of the beautiful things that Heaven bears, / Where we came forth, and once more saw the stars (373).”

I am sure Dante was happy to get out of hell. The notes in the back of the book said that every book in the Commedia ends with the word "stars". The last line was very different than the rest of the Inferno. Everything was really dark through out hell and in the last line Dante mentions light and heaven. It's foreshadowing into where Dante is headed next. Hell is behind him, next purgatory, and finally Heaven. Gives a hopeful finish to a disturbing story.